August 31 2008 - Disneyland Half Marathon - 1:20:45

My mom signed us up for this race almost six months ago and I did not pay much attention to it. I have been focusing most of my training on the New York marathon, as well as slacking off a bit - due to various reasons - Therefore, did not feel in optimal condition to run this race even though I had been picking it up in the previous two weeks - which gave me comfort.

Heading up to this race, I did not know what my performance would be. I was thinking, either I would bomb completely or have a decent performance. At least I wanted that, something close to PR. I did not want any mediocre or regular result. Aditionally, I have had many things going on right now and did not feel mentally motivated as I have been for other races. The only thing I was sure of ; was that I was going to begin at a comfortable pace and build up from there - lesson learned in last half marathon.

So race day came and thanks to the difference in time - from Eastern to Pacific time - waking up for this race was not hard at all. However, due to some problems; my carboloading on the previous day was Mexican food -I should not call it carboloading- so this posted a minor problem in the morning since I had no desire to go to the bathroom...

Anyways, we took the last bus to the start and I went to the first corral with my dad. I met with Jasper and Gene briefly before the race. We did not have to wait too long in the start line; we waited about 40 minutes. And so the gun - I should say fire - went off. I began at a very comfortable pace and cruised through the first mile at 6:01 - felt good. The next two miles felt weird. I think my body was warming up in the first three miiles, as I felt agitated and thought to myself - holly shit, if this continues, it's gonna be a long race. I passed the 5k point at 19:22 which was slower than what I had wanted, I began forcing a faster pace which began feeling less and less comfortable.

Reached the 10k in 38:15 and a guy in blue (see pic) tried passing me so I just tucked in behind him. He was going at a very constant pace which I was finding comfortable to pace with. We reached the 15k in 57:20 and passed plenty of people.

Finally, reaching the 13th mile my legs were tired but I kept pushing and pushing. A guy from my age group beat me in the last 100 yards - by 1 second - which I feel ashamed of since I usually have a strong explosive kick but I could not find it.

So I finished with a 1:20:45. Satisifed with the time.